PLEASANTON — Howard and Diana Mendenhall were on a home-building mission in Armenia when they first saw Hurricane Katrina’s destruction on a black-and-white TV.

“We had a sense of the damage because Russian television was quite good,” said Howard Mendenhall, 69, of Pleasanton. “We couldn’t understand it though because it was in a different language. They had reporters on site.”

On Saturday, they will be two of the 12 volunteers from Pleasanton Presbyterian Church to depart for Slidell, La., about 40 miles northeast of New Orleans.

For Howard, it will be his second trip to the beaten region. In January, he ventured there where he “mudded out houses,” removing furniture, stoves and washing machines from thick layers of mud that settled in people’s homes.

“The mud was so thick, we couldn’t use shovels,” he said.

The volunteers — many of whom are seniors — will be there a week, where they will “resurrect homes” that are already built and shipped in from all parts of the country.

“We’ve been given so much and have been fortunate in our work lives and family lives that we believe this isn’t optional,” said Terry Bedell, who recently helped build a desalination plant on an island off of Honduras.

Carl Holder, 71, said a background in home construction isn’t necessary. Every year he joins a group of about two dozen kids from the church to Baja Mexico to work on such projects. He said after the full extent of hurricane’s damaged became clear, he felt compelled to help.

To learn more about Habitat for Humanity, visit http://www.habitatEB.org.

“It’s going to be a mess for months, maybe years,” he said. “There’s a great satisfaction for us in doing this.”

On Thursday, Holder and other church members were hammering away at their current project on Freeda Court in Livermore, a Habitat for Humanity site where 22 homes are being built. The homes are “green friendly,” with solar panels.

Dan Ashton, 82, has volunteered for Habitat for 12 years.

“These people are already working and employed, but they can’t afford to buy a house,” he said with hammer in hand. “I enjoy doing the carpentry work and I believe in this program.”

Like every recipient of the program, Livermore resident Carey Hylton had to put in 500 hours of “sweat equity,” by putting on gloves and getting dirty.

“You have to do everything — no plumbing or electrical or anything like that,” she said. “If it wasn’t for this, I’d be renting for the rest of my life with white walls and no paintings,” she said.

Volunteers say one of the great rewards of home building is meeting recipients.

Diana Mendenhall will always remember when an Armenian grandmother looked at her and told her through an interpreter, “there are no words I have for coming so far away to help my family.”

I started to cry,” she said. “Time stopped at that moment.”

To learn more about volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, visit http://www.habitatEB.org.